


Hatchet

by ArrowsandStars



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adam's alive, After Season 7, Comfort/Angst, Fluff, Hospital, M/M, Reunions, Shiro (Voltron)-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-18
Updated: 2018-11-18
Packaged: 2019-08-25 13:01:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16661577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArrowsandStars/pseuds/ArrowsandStars
Summary: Keith wakes Shiro with some shocking news. No one's dead- just the opposite, actually.





	Hatchet

Shiro, since freeing Earth, had taken to sleeping in late. Repairs on the Argo were still ongoing, so he wasn’t really… needed. He rolled over, not quite awake, reaching for someone- that woke him up. He shut out that old hurt and elected for a few more hours of shut eye. He figured he deserved it.

He had just managed to drift off when a familiar racket started a his door. Keith's loud, insistant knocking. He rolled over, groaning, and flipped the switch to slide open the door. He was mid grumble when he glanced over at Keith, stopped, then really looked at him. Keith was rumpled, awed, half panicked. Someone was dead. He just knew it.

“Who’s dead.” He said, not really a question, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

“Takashi, it’s not that.”

Shiro jolts a bit, Keith never uses his first name, that was usually Adam’s- he stops the thought. Dull pain settling behind his ribcage. It’s going to be that kind of day.

“You need to come with me to the infirmary, right now, no one’s dead, but I need you to come with me.” 

He’s already out of bed, pulling on a shirt and drawstring pants and padding after Keith into the hallway in socks.

Keith is already halfway down the hallway, pace almost a run. Shiro feels a fizz of annoyance, and jogs to catch up to him.

“Tell me what’s going on, Keith. Why are we running?”

“When we get there, you’ll be pissed we aren’t sprinting, just come on.”

Shiro follows Keith, matching his pace down the flights of stairs to the infirmary.

The doors of the infirmary swoosh open, and most of the team is already there. He does a mental headcount, the paladins all here, so who’s hurt?

Keith is taking his arm and guiding him to a door like he’s delicate, and he swats Keith’s hand with his metal arm, Keith grips tighter and says, “Look up, Shiro.” in this oddly strained voice.  
He looks up, through the open door and into a typical hospital room. A heartbreakingly familiar figure is on the bed. Shiro sways into Keith, suddenly glad for his grip on him.

“What- what-” There are already tears in his eyes, and he’s looking down at Keith, and Keith is crying. And he knows this is for real if Keith is crying- and Adam is in that bed. Adam. Adam. His Adam. He’s alive.

“Takashi.” says a voice that Shiro had resigned to memory. “Takashi, come here.” 

He takes a shuddering breath, and rushes to Adam, Keith lets him go, slides the door shut behind him, but he doesn’t register anything but Adam.

He doesn’t even know how many years it’s technically been since he’s seen him, that mission to Kerberos seems like several lifetimes ago. And, remembering his clones and white hair, he supposes it was. 

Adam is shuffling himself upright, and Takashi moves before he thinks, helping him sit up, getting him comfortable. Adam tugs him down onto the bed, and Takashi sits, staring at Adam in awe for a moment. He pinches himself, just to make sure, and Adam chuckles, the sound hits Shiro like a brick in the chest, has his face crumpling and a sob shuddering from him. He’s here. He’s alive. They both are.

Adam’s arm tugs Shiro into his chest, his hand brushing through his hair like it had a thousand times before, and Shiro cries harder. The motion sending memories flooding through him he’d never thought he’d get to experience again.

“Where have you been?” He asks, once he feels like he can form a thought from the emotions. “What happened?” He looks up into Adam’s face, rememorises every detail. He reaches his human hand up, wiping away a tear, cupping his jaw and realizing his hand was shaking like a leaf.

“I should be asking that of you.” Adam says instead, “Six years since Kerberos, and not a damn peep from you. Even from Sam when he came back-”

“I didn’t think you’d want to hear from me.” Shiro interrupts. “What happened to ‘Don’t expect me to be here when you get back’?”

“It was horseshit! It was all because I couldn’t stand the thought of you dying on some mission in deep space when you should have been here with me!” Adam’s temper, oh he’d missed his temper.

“Oh.” Shiro says, his voice smaller than he intended it. “Well. I’m not dying now.” he says. “They told me you were dead when I got back.” 

“I was pretty close to it after the initial crash.” Adam says.

Shiro pulls himself off Adam’s chest and surveys him. There’s good reason he’s in this hospital bed. The left side of his body is covered in thick burn scars, his left eye clouded. Blind. His left arm ends abruptly before his elbow. And that’s just all he can see. Shiro can’t breathe. Phantom pain pangs through his metal arm, and the thought of Adam feeling something similar sends tears running again.

“What happened?” He asks, leaning over him, Adam’s arm slides around his shoulder and tugs him back down to his chest. 

“You go first.” Adam’s voice is flat.

“You’re the one in the hospital bed.” Shiro counters, easy as breathing.

“You’re right here with me, Sweetheart.” Adam says, and Shiro’s heart lurches in his chest.

“Don’t call me Sweetheart if you’re not going to kiss me.” Shiro lifts his head and meets Adam’s eyes for that, and Adam smirks at him, winding his hand through Shiro’s hair.

“Who said anything about not kissing you?” he breathes, and leans up and into him, bringing their lips together gently.

Shiro feels like he’s home for the first time in six years, and wants to kiss him instead of breathing.

Shiro breaks the kiss after a moment though, he has to know.

“What happened, Adam?” He asks again.

Adam looks at him a moment and said, in a careful voice that didn’t shake, “My jet was hit, left wing completely shot off by one of those ion cannons. I got burned up pretty bad, lost my arm and my sight in that eye, and was flung way out of range by the power of the hit. I crash landed in a stretch of state park, way out in the middle of nowhere, patched myself up the best I could with the med supplies that survived the crash, and did my best to keep breathing.”

Shiro looks at him, touches the burned side of his face gently.

“I lived the invasion out in a cave nearish to the crash, and set traps for animals to eat. I saw the battle in the sky, it happened around the time I was starting to feel well enough to try and leave, and I saw someone fighting back. So I started walking. It took me a week to get back to anywhere at all, and some survivors helped me contact the Garrison.”

“Holy shit.” Shiro said, before he could stop himself.

“Yep. Like an entire Hatchet situation.” 

The reference to the book by Gary Paulsen they both loved made Shiro smile, despite the awfulness of Adam’s experience. Months alone… knowing Earth was being invaded. Shiro couldn’t imagine healing from injuries like Adam had sustained in the wilderness, alone. He told him so.

“I had some med pacs for trauma injuries, and some military grade burn gel.” Adam said, like that was plenty for losing an arm and burning thirty percent of your body. “I stuck a pac on my arm and one on my face and hoped for the best.” 

Shiro kissed him this time, just a bit desperately.

When they come up for air, Adam says, “Your turn, Wonderboy. Tell me about the crazy magical arm and the bleach job.”

Shiro bursts into laughter, and Adam squeezes him closer. He’s laying half on the bed, half on Adam’s chest, and he has no plans on moving away anytime soon.

“Soo…” Adam prompts, and Shiro takes a breath, Adam was debriefed by Sam, so he knew the basics. He’s debriefed people dozens of times on what happened, but to tell Adam… infinitely more personal.

“I… Matt, Sam and I, were abducted by aliens when we were on Kerberos.” he starts, and the telling, as brief as he keeps it, takes a while. He doesn’t leave anything out. From Kerberos to the Paladins and Zarkon, battles and near-deaths and clones and actual deaths. Everything.

“Fuck.” Adam says, with feeling. “Takashi, how can you outdo even my Gary Paulsen adjacent tragedy?” 

Laughter bursts out of Shiro again, Adam could always do that, just crack him up at the drop of a hat no matter what. And then he’s crying again, and Adam is kissing him and crying too. Shiro never knew anything could feel this good. He feels like he’s so full of emotion he’s going to pop. 

“I missed you.” Shiro says. That doesn’t even begin to describe it. 

“I never stopped loving you.” Adam answers, frank even if it hurt. Especially then. “It’s been six years and I’m still a fucking wreck over you.”

Shiro tucks his head into Adam’s chest, and says “I don’t think I’ve ever not been a wreck over you.”

Adam kisses his temple and rubs circles into Shiro’s back, just like he used to do, and for a few minutes they just take each other in; Shiro luxuriates in how Adam’s heartbeat sounds, and Adam’s hand never stops its soothing pattern. 

For the first time in six years, Shiro falls asleep without reaching across the bed for someone who isn’t there.


End file.
